Speechless
by writingfanficlikeabus
Summary: "Lucina, daughter of Exalt Chrom, was very rarely left speechless." In which Ethan keeps impeding the progression of a relationship, Inigo makes a cameo to get his offer of love advice rejected, and everyone in the mansion ships Palucina.


**_(A/N Blame one of my mutuals on tumblr for making me ship this, because now I'm trash)_**

 ** _Disclaimer: Super Smash Bros. and all of the characters used in this fic are property of Nintendo._**

Lucina, daughter of Exalt Chrom, was very rarely left speechless. It is extraordinarily hard to surprise anyone who has lived most of their life battling what were essentially zombies with fancy names, after all. But her first meeting with Lady Palutena of Skyworld was one of those rare times.

Of course, she had already heard much about the Goddess of Light. She had been told that Lady Palutena was beautiful, Lady Palutena was wise, Lady Palutena was more powerful than even Naga (which Lucina had a hard time believing). But no-one had told her that Lady Palutena possessed a beauty that made Lucina feel strange inside, or that her wisdom was flawed and alluringly human, or that it was her _kindness_ that gave her power. No-one had described Lady Palutena in a way that truly captured the person standing before Lucina, the one that took her breath away. In Lucina's first meeting with Lady Palutena of Skyworld, at a party before the start of the Smash Tournament, she was so mesmerised that she forgot to speak.

Which, admittedly, put a dampener on any sort of relationship they could really form at that point, but Lucina was far too busy admiring the way Palutena's green hair swayed about her to realise that.

Lucina's second meeting with Palutena involved several cuccos and a Pidgey. It was really one of the Pokemon trainers' fault; he had ordered a Peck attack near a bunch of the angry birds, and Lucina had been there, and so had Palutena, and, well, they had ended up hiding in a cupboard for an hour, along with aforementioned trainer, while Link had the unfortunate job of calming the cuccos down. Naturally, because cupboards aren't _really_ the sort of thing designed to hold anything people sized, they were uncomfortably close.

Lucina shifted her weight slightly, and ended up with her elbow in the face of the Pokemon trainer, a boy called Ethan from Johto. Since it seemed like they were going to be there for a while, she decided to try and make small talk. Unfortunately, her mouth refused to obey and she ended up only succeeding in a squeak.

Palutena looked at her curiously. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Lucina tried to nod her head, an action that resulted in banging it against the "ceiling". They settled into an awkward silence. Ethan firmly decided that this was the second most traumatic experience in his life, after the time Silver became delirious from Stun Spore and started babbling about things Ethan really, _really_ didn't want to know.

Lucina could hear Palutena breathing next to her, could almost _feel_ the rise and fall of her chest. She had wanted to get closer to the goddess, but she definitely hadn't meant _literally._ Eventually, Palutena spoke, because Lucina was clearly momentarily unable to, and Ethan was just trying to survive the ordeal.

"So, since we're obviously stuck here for the moment, why don't we get to know each other?" The way she spoke was friendly and upbeat, and it made Lucina feel happy inside.

Ethan spoke first, because Lucina was currently too busy grinning like an idiot to reply.

"Uh, well, my name's Ethan, I'm fourteen and I'm from the Johto region. I've beaten Trainer Red and the Elite Four, and I'm here to hone my Pokémon's skills."

There wasn't really much else to say. _I'm also dating three different people in a healthy polyamorous relationship_ didn't really seem necessary to mention, and it wasn't as if he had much else going on with his life apart from battling.

Palutena smiled and _oh Naga she's pretty._ Lucina had never had a crush, but she thought that this must be what it felt like. She leant against the side and was thankful that the dark hid colours, and, more specifically, the blush that felt like a blissful warmth spreading across her face.

Link came to get them soon after that, covered in feathers and grinning, and Lucina felt strange, like she wasn't sure whether to be thankful or not that she was no longer only inches from Palutena. Ethan took one look at her, came to a conclusion, and muttered something about more training, before running off with Link in tow behind him. Lucina stood awkwardly next to Palutena, partly because she didn't want to leave just yet, but mostly because she couldn't think of an appropriate way to say goodbye. Eventually, she stammered an apology for the events of the day. Palutena laughed in response, and Lucina's heart felt like it was doing backflips inside her ribcage.

"It's fine. I've been in much worse scrapes before. Like when the vegetables…" Palutena's face clouded and she shuddered. Lucina wasn't really sure how to respond to Palutena's distress at whatever had happened with the vegetables, so she just cleared her throat nervously.

Palutena smiled. "Well, I've got a match soon, so I need to go. It was nice seeing you." She frowned. "Even if we _were_ stuck in a cupboard for most of it." Then she walked off down the corridor and Lucina was left wishing that she could actually open her mouth and have a proper conversation with the goddess.

"Having girl problems, Lucina?" a voice said next to her ear, and a split second later Inigo found himself up against the wall with Falchion pressed up against his neck. When she saw that it was him, she relaxed and put the sword back in its sheath.

"You should know better than to sneak up on me," she mumbled.

He shrugged. "Well, when I saw your reaction to that _beautiful_ lady - nice choice, by the way - I just couldn't help myself. And it seems to me that you're having trouble talking to her, so I thought I'd step up and say that if you ever need advice from ol' Inigo in the ways of love, then you only need ask. My door's always open."

Lucina balked. On a scale, taking dating advice from "ol' Inigo" probably rated at about the same level as asking Severa for tips on being polite. She decided to be frank with him.

"No."

Inigo frowned, as if he didn't quite understand the concept. "No? No what?"

"No, I don't want your love advice, Inigo."

Inigo crossed his arms and pouted. "You'll change your mind," he started to say, but Lucina was already striding past him.

Lucina didn't have a third meeting with Palutena for a while after what was referred to by all who knew as "the cupboard incident", but in between those times there were rumours. Lucina wasn't quite sure what the rumours were, because everybody stopped talking about them whenever she started to listen. All that she knew was that it related to her in some way, which was the most obvious thing about it considering the way people were reacting around her. At one point, when she had seen Palutena and was trying to walk towards her to actually start a conversation between them for once in her life, Ethan stepped in front of her and tried to tell her what the rumours were actually about. He successfully managed to get out, "Uh, Lucina, about the rumours," before he was tackled by one of his friends and a sock was shoved in his mouth. By the time Lucina looked up from the struggle, Palutena had walked off and her attempt to start a conversation was foiled.

Lucina's _actual_ third meeting with Palutena occurred a few weeks later. She had seen her once before then, but she was having a conversation with Ethan and Lucina didn't want to interrupt them. When they were finally both free, it was _Palutena_ who sought _Lucina_ out, much to the latter's surprise when she opened the door of her room to find the goddess standing there.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

Lucina's ability to talk had once again deserted her, so she nodded wordlessly and moved aside to let Palutena in, who promptly sat down on her bed with all the grace of a deflating balloon, and none of that of a goddess.

"I wanted to talk about these rumours that have been going around," she started to say, before Ethan burst into the room.

"Hey, Lucina, I was wondering if-" he began, but then stopped, his eyes wide. He looked between Lucina and Palutena. "I-I'll just go now." He left the room as quickly as he had come in, and Palutena listened until his quick footsteps faded away before she began to speak again. She shook her head, a wry smile on her face.

"That boy always seems to interrupt just as I'm trying to talk to you."

"Y-yeah."

"But anyway, I was talking about these rumours. Pit tried to tell me about it but he got as far as," she altered her voice to do a rough impression of her Captain of the Guard, "'Oh, you mean the rumours about you and Lucina,' before Pittoo covered his mouth and Viridi threatened to kick him in the crotch if he didn't shut up. Did you get the same thing?"

Lucina had gone bright red. The rumours were about her _and_ Palutena? She wondered if it was Inigo who had told people about it. Or, knowing Inigo, who had told someone who couldn't keep a secret about it so he could act innocent later. She took a few deep breaths.

"Yeah," she said, her voice surprisingly steady, "Ethan tried to tell me, but one of his friends - I think it was Leaf? - tackled him to the ground. Uh, just out of interest, what do you think of these rumours?" Lucina's heart was beating far too loudly, and she wished it would shut up before Palutena heard. Palutena who was now grinning like she was about to do something mischievous.

"I think we should add more fuel to the fire."

Lucina's heart was now beating so hard that she was afraid it would come out of her mouth and hit Palutena, who was now standing inches away from her instead of on the bed.

"Um," Lucina said, and that was as far as she got before they were kissing and it felt like fireworks were going off in her head except she was pretty sure that was impossible since cranial firework explosions was as good a cause as any for death and she was pretty sure that that wasn't the kind of thing you should think about when kissing and-

Cheering.

Who was cheering?

Palutena broke off, looking just as confused as she was. The cheering cut off. From underneath the large space under the bed emerged King DeDeDe, Princess Peach and Toon Link, whose mouth was being covered with one gloved hand. They were all looking very sheepish.

"Lucina. Palutena," Peach began. "We were just-"

"-testing the living conditions under your bed. In case cockroaches move in," DeDeDe suggested.

"Yes!" Peach looked relieved. "That's what we were doing. And we'll just…go…now…" All three made an attempt to swiftly back out of the door, realised it wasn't open, then turned around to face it and left, leaving Palutena and Lucina to stare at the space where they had been.

"Um," Lucina said again.

"Well?" asked Zelda when Peach, DeDeDe and Toon arrived back at the dining room, or, as Leaf insisted on calling it, the Maritime Operations Meeting Room (no-one bothered asking her what that actually meant, although Red was trying to suppress laughter when she suggested it). She was greeted with a thumbs up.

Zelda turned to Red and Leaf, on standby nearby with the intercom system, and gave them the signal. Both leaned over the microphone, and soon their words were blaring out from speakers all around the mansion.

"Hello, this is Leaf of the Kanto region, and my fellow Kanto kid Red and I have some good news for you all."

"The ship has officially sailed!"

Cheers rose up throughout the building, but Lucina and Palutena, alone in Lucina's room, weren't listening.


End file.
